Finally Free
by smilelaughread
Summary: Cedric Diggory is a ghost, and he gets to visit a place he has never seen - only dreamed of - before. HPFC challenge.


It was a well-known fact in the Wizarding community that Cedric Diggory had been killed while at Hogwarts, during the TriWizard Tournament. Completely eradicated from the world by a manic, newly-revived Voldemort. It was also fairly common knowledge amongst people who had some idea of current events that his father had been quite upset over his death. For good reason; Cedric had been his son. It would probably be incredibly distressing for Amos Diggory to hear of a new development in his son's life - well, afterlife.

Well, bless his father, but thankfully it wasn't known that Cedric hadn't passed peacefully into the afterlife; he had become a ghost. His father would be miserable to hear his son was still not at peace. Now, one might think it's horrible to think of but truthfully, what teenager's life is complete before graduating Hogwarts? Of course he had unfinished business: he wanted to travel the world, see what there was to see, be successful, and make his family proud.

Being dead, it was harder than one would think to do any of those things. In the first few weeks of being a ghost, he still didn't know how to get out of whatever limbo he was suspended in, and was growing increasingly frustrated. The light around him sparkled and shimmered in many colours, as if broken by a stained glass window. But there was nothing. He couldn't see, hear, smell, or sense anyone or anything else in that place. It was kind of freaking him out, not one used to complete solitude. He tried walking and walking, trying to get out of it, the thick mist. The mist seemed to move and follow him, sticking to his face and clothes and it was aggravating beyond belief. Eventually, he decided to sit and relax. Maybe, just maybe, if he closed his eyes, the annoying mist would go away.

He did just as he wanted to - there wasn't anyone to tell him what not to do - and sat down. He wasn't sure what he was sitting _on_, considering it seemed he was suspended in some sort of cloud, but he threw his thoughts out and simply focused on relaxing.

When he opened his eyes again, moments later, everything was exactly the same.

"Urghhh," he groaned, throwing himself back and lying down. "I need to get out."

He tried apparition, but it wasn't working. He didn't have a wand - Merlin only knew what had happened in that graveyard - and his magical abilities had been wonky at best in this strange world. He could move without really moving his body, almost floating. But maybe that was just how ghosts were. He went back to pacing, trying to think of something.

"Come on!" Cedric yelled. He then looked around, wondering if anyone could hear him. He hoped he wasn't scaring any innocent muggles, but at this point he almost didn't care.

Suddenly, he stopped. "How am I moving?" His mind raced to figure out how he was moving himself around, because his (partly invisible) legs were not moving. Maybe if he learned how to move, he could make himself disappear from this place. Once again, he sat and tried to focus. He lay on his back, and then on his stomach. He focused all his attention on the mist dissipating and focused on memories he had of the mortal world. If he could just leave-

And then he was falling. Cedric screamed at the top of his lungs; water, deep, blue, remarkably clear water, was rushing up to meet his face at an alarming rate. He didn't have his wand to cast the bubble-head charm this time, like he had in the Tournament. He shut his eyes, anticipating the horrible _slap_ that would come with reaching the water in his current horizontal position.

Everything went dreadfully cold, and Cedric had to open his eyes. He was much too curious not to.

The world around him was completely blue! His eyes didn't register anything, and soon he realized he was under the water. How could that be? But then again... he was a ghost. This was probably one of those things ghosts could do!

He let himself sink to the bottom, thinking hard about moving faster and most likely actually doing something to increase his speed. This was wonderful; he was finally learning to be a ghost. He had also realized breathing wasn't necessary anymore, and was happy for that fact as he continued down deeper and deeper. He finally reached the dark bottom, floating over the compact sand at the bottom of the ocean.

At least he thought it was an ocean; it was too deep to simply be a lake. He kicked himself for closing his eyes on the way down. Cedric followed the ocean floor, looking at fish that passed curiously. After a while, the bottom began following a fairly steady increase.

He closed his eyes, remembering the feeling of flying through the air. It had been quite fun, he thought in retrospect, though during the fact he had been absolutely terrified.

And then he was suddenly not in the water any longer. He was once again in the air! He wondered what that thing he was seeing was, and flew in closer than before. The ocean looked multi-coloured from up here. As he got closer, he realized it really _was_ multi-coloured. But what was making it look like that? Were there simply a whole lot of fish down there, making the water seem made up of many colours and shades. He had to think on it for a fair amount of time, but when it finally hit him, he knew he was right.

It was the Great Barrier Reef! Cedric's heart soared. He was near Australia! He had always wanted to travel around the world. This was amazing. He was already beginning a new chapter in his life and despite being dead, he was glad it had. Maybe being a ghost wasn't so bad if this was what he could do! That probably wasn't the best way of thinking, as it was always infinitely better to be alive and well, but he was overcome with happiness at seing this legendary place.

There were a few things he wanted to see while on this amazing journey in Australia, and he had just seen one. If he hadn't been focusing everything into staying in the air, he probably would have laughed in glee at seeing it all.

The second landmark he wanted to visit was the iconic Sydney Opera House. He rushed down to trail one translucent hand along the water, trying to pull up an image of the place. He willed himself there, and all at once, he was staring at the beautiful building. The architecture was stunning, and he knew instinctively that sound would travel incredibly well inside due to the roof's shape.

Cedric circled a few more times, telling himself that he would be back - this was incredible. He kept flying, increasing his altitude until his already invisible body was once again blocked by the clouds.

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**Thanks for reading, hope you liked it! My prompts were eradicate and compact, and this was written for the Where in the World challenge at HPFC. Leave me a review to tell me what you thought!**


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